The Merging of Media and Creative.

The way we think about marketing and advertising has shifted dramatically over the years. Digital allows us to focus on exactly the right people in exactly the right places, understanding their actions in real time.

And yet, the way we do our work hasn’t evolved at that same speed. Too often, media and creative teams continue to operate under a traditional model, approached as entirely separate functions with minimal space for fluidity or collaboration. The result is work that feels siloed and fraught with missed opportunities and costly inefficiencies.

To put it simply: If we want to maximize the benefits of digital, we need to change how we work.

Bringing media and creative together

This can look a lot of different ways—like having a single shop for all your media and creative needs, or having a media partner with the creative capabilities needed to support your AOR. However you choose to merge the two, there are significant benefits you can expect to see.

• Holistic perspectives from planning to postmortem. Having consistent and ongoing collaboration leads to sound, innovative solutions. A creative idea can spark media recommendations, or a new platform capability may inspire a fresh brand expression. A right-brainer might spot something unique in your mid-campaign search performance, or teams may help each other avoid future missteps. Having the right voices present at every step gets you better outcomes for all.
• The flexibility to optimize with ease. The real superpower of digital media is your ability to test, learn and then real-time optimize. But if the creative capabilities aren’t in place to meet this need, you’re facing a huge missed opportunity. Having a media partner who can help fill this gap allows you to quickly react with updated messaging, visuals, lifestyle imagery and more.
• Creative assets that work harder. You can have the world’s most sophisticated targeting plan in place, but if creative isn’t aligned, none of it matters. When media and creative teams are connected, strategies are aligned and nothing gets lost in translation.
• Cost efficiencies. The reality is that it costs money to get your agency partners together. Consolidating roles allows for more collaboration between media and creative teams, for less money.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Depending on your organizational needs, how you bring media and creative together will differ. The important thing is that you start to do it. Want to know how our teams can support you? Contact us, and we can get all the right voices in the room.